Sri Lanka presidential election 2024: Who are the main contenders?

Sri Lanka will vote on Saturday (September 21) to elect a new president. The elections come as the island nation reels from an economic crisis.

Over 17 million (1.7 crore) people are eligible to vote in the presidential elections. A record 39 contenders had filed nominations. However, one candidate passed away and 38 remain in the race. While previous presidential elections were bipolar contests, these polls will see a multi-cornered fight.

Who are the main faces in the Sri Lankan presidential race? Let’s take a look.

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, is the incumbent Sri Lankan president. He took over the post in 2022 after widespread protests triggered by a crippling financial crisis forced the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

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Wickremesinghe was elected president and led the island nation through an unprecedented economic crisis. He brought economic reforms and secured an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.

Sri Lanka has improved on several key economic figures, including inflation which has dropped from 70 per cent two years back to about 5 per cent. Interest rates have plunged and the island nation’s foreign reserves have increased. As Al Jazeera noted, the election is being viewed as a “referendum” on the incumbent president’s economic reforms.

After filing his nomination last month, Wickremesinghe told reporters, “We have to stabilise the economy. What we are saying is, ‘Let’s go ahead and finish this job’. That’s why I’m asking for your support.”

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Wickremesinghe, who is the leader of the United National Party (UNP), is running as an independent candidate. He has the support of a major section of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party.

Sajith Premadasa

Sajith Premadasa is one of the frontrunners in the presidential race. He is the current opposition leader of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).

The son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, he has promised to curb corruption. “Right now, 22 million (2.2 crore) people of our country are suffering from incompetence, ineptitude, mass-scale corruption, and looting of the public treasury,” he reportedly said.

His SJB has the backing of the Tamil and the Muslim minorities, who make up 11 per cent and 9.7 per cent of Sri Lanka ’s population, respectively, according to The Week.

In the 2019 presidential elections, Premadasa finished second with about 42 per cent vote share. This was when he was part of Wickremesinghe’s UNP, which he later left to form his own party, the SJB.

His main promises include abolishing Sri Lanka’s executive presidency, changes to the IMF bailout programme and reducing taxes to ease the cost of living.

“The people of Sri Lanka will have to make a choice between a new visionary approach and the same old approach which protects the rich. Our people have a choice [other than opting for] extreme socialism and Marxism, which has not proved to be a viable model in modern-day governance,” Premadasa was quoted as saying by The Week.

Anura Kumara Dissanayaka

Anura Kumara Dissanayaka is the presidential candidate of the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition. The 55-year-old is a Marxist-Leninist leader from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Popularly known as AKD, he has vowed to stamp out corruption, nepotism, economic inequalities and class conflicts, reported News18.

AKD had bagged only about three per cent of the vote in the 2019 polls. However, he has emerged as a serious contender this time, being preferred by younger voters. His rallies have attracted massive crowds.

AKD’s coalition NPP is banking on people’s disgruntlement sparked by economic hardship due to the austerity measures linked to the IMF bailout.

However, JVP’s violent past could dent AKD’s chances. His party was once a banned terrorist organisation for two guerilla insurrections in the late 1900s.

AKD, who has presented himself as a changemaker, would be hoping to overcome his party’s past.

Namal Rajapaksa

The scion of the powerful Rajapaksa family, his chances seem slim of being elected as the next president. The 38-year-old is the son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and nephew of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The candidate from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) was a surprise entrant in the race. His last-minute nomination is seen as more of an effort to unite the party after several of its members threw their weight behind Wickremesinghe.

Other candidates

Nuwan Bopage, 40, is the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Struggle Alliance. The activist lawyer had led the 2022 protest movement against Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

P Ariyanethiran, the Tamil MP from the north, and former military chief Sarath Fonseka are also in the fray.

With so many candidates in the race, many political pundits forecast that no single contender will get the minimum 50 per cent majority vote to become the president. This could lead to the counting of preferential votes to decide the winner.

Sri Lanka follows a preferential voting system that allows voters to mark up to three preferences against the names of the candidates listed on the ballot.

Speaking to The Week, columnist and research analyst Udita Devapriya said, “The 2019 election was fought on security issues and there were only two main contenders. But this election is being fought on the merits of each candidate, with an economic crisis still looming large. This one is establishment versus anti-establishment.”

The results are likely to be announced within a day of voting.

With inputs from agencies